15 Things You Don't Know About Sally Donnovan
by BleedingCrimson
Summary: A collection of fifteen things you never knew about Sgt. Sally Donnovan. Fifteen things you never knew about the woman you only see a couple times. The one most people dislike, but if you pay close enough attention, there is a story behind those eyes.


1. Sally hates her first name. It's her mother's name and she's never liked her mother. She prefers to go by Donnovan. That's her father's name.

2. Donnovan's last name is actually spelled with two 'n's, not one. Most people get it wrong, but it never has really bothered her.

3. Donnovan hates kiwi. Maybe because it's too sour for her liking, or maybe because it was her father's favorite and eating it reminds her of him which hurts more than anything.

4. Donnovan has no living family. In part she is happy about this, no one to answer to, no one she has to worry about if there's a criminal after her and her team. But it's also sad because she remembers when she did have them.

5. Donnovan doesn't even like Anderson. He doesn't like her much either. She's too dark-skinned for him and he's too ignorant for her, even if he is very smart. But he found her the day she was told her father had died, just after his daughter died, and no one else understood that pain but each other and things led into another, and they hate each other for it.

6. Donnovan use to have a crush on one Mr Sherlock Holmes. For five minutes. Then he gave her this disdainful sort of sniff and looked away, and she can't be sure if it was because she was a woman, black, or because he's just an arrogant git. Sometimes she can't help but think it was a combination of all the three.

7. Lestrade is her hero. He's the only hero she's ever met, actually, so that makes him _her _hero. He found her when she was in high school, acting out. Put her behind bars overnight for being at a certain party and... talked to her. He understood her and didn't see the things that everyone else did that kept them away. And no matter how hard she tried to _push_ him away at first, he would let little lost Sally go down the wrong road. She's never been able to tell him how grateful she is for that, but she's pretty sure he knows, considering she works for him now.

8. Donnovan knows French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Latin. She speaks, reads and writes each of these fluently. She's always had a passion for languages and continues to learn more whenever she can, even if whenever she can is browsing the internet for short online classes once a month.

9. She had a baby, once. Her maternal instinct is alive and well, and she had adopted the cutest little boy for a nearby orphanage. One her team had saved from an abusive family. She got attached, quickly. For almost a year it was perfect, hard, but perfect. Then a killer started targeting the loved ones of those in the Yard, to weaken and distract them. Little Jimmy was the first target. Stolen from his primary school and found hours later, mutilated and strung up in a tree with a Ku Klux Klan mask over his face, even though he was white. She still blames herself.

10. Donnovan gives Lestrade a smile every day, even if she doesn't feel like it, because he needs one, and God knows he doesn't get enough thanks for everything he does.

11. Donnovan is injury prone. Whenever she's on a case she is somehow injured. Usually it's some kind of knife or gunshot wound, large or small, but sometimes it's just because she's tripped over a chink in the carpet and smashed her hand on the corner of a desk. But, she always ends up hurt somehow.

12. Donnovan could kick your ass twelve days from Sunday. Even though she looks weak she packs a mean punch and knows exactly how to use it. She's learned structured fighting, multiple kinds, but she's also picked up on the street-and-bar kinds early on.

13. Her mother wasn't abusive or neglectful, just distant. Always. Donnovan can't remember _one_ time where her mother has kissed her goodnight or hugged her or even helped her up after telling her to shut up about skinning her knee. Mostly her mother just ignored her, and it was a bit like not having a mother at all, just a lady who sat around the house. Almost like a piece of furniture.

14. Donnovan loves the color orange. Absolutely loves it. The dark, burnt orange color. It reminded her of autumn and the crunchy leaves and sitting on benches with her father. Not the grossly luminescent orange that stung the eyes and made her think of that one receptionists nails that always sneered at her when she walked by.

15. Even though she wants to, she doesn't actually think Sherlock Holmes is a freak. She thinks he's smart and amazing but hates that he gets things that come so hard for her. She does the grunt work, in the field. She's not an investigator, she never will be, and she knows it. She doesn't begrudge him that. It's just when he pushes it in her face that he's so much better off than her, and always has been, and life is just fantastic for him, and she'll never have it no matter how hard she tries- well, it reminds her of how much she hated high school and so she calls him the one thing that echoes in her mind, _'freak'_,


End file.
